Rosebank Advocates February 2018 – With Dr Grant Hewison

February 1, 2018

To voice concerns on behalf of businesses in Rosebank about the traffic congestion at the Patiki onramp, the Rosebank Roundabout and along Rosebank Road during peak hour, RBA Chair Bernie McCrea, CEO Mike Gibson and RBA advisor Grant Hewison met in late 2017 with representatives of Auckland Transport and Whau Local Board Chair, Tracy Mullholland.

The Patiki Road On-ramp

First up, the RBA representatives raised concerns about the Patiki road onramp and the merging of traffic into the motorway.

The representatives for Auckland Transport said there had been changes in the transport flows with the opening of the Waterview Tunnel and the completion of the SH16/20 works. The Rosebank area was being monitored and Auckland Transport does share the concerns of the RBA that there has been an increase of demand during peak traffic periods at Patiki.

Auckland Transport is monitoring the situation and is looking at options, but is also assessing traffic patterns post Waterview as they ‘settle down’.

The ramp signals are managed automatically across the network to have optimum flow. While this may give an impression that signal phasing is not working efficiently at Patiki, because they are part of a wider network, the phasing is taking into considerations activity further up and down the motorway system.

A current option is to trial dynamic lanes using overhead and in ground signals so that different lanes are used at peak and non-peak times. This is currently being trailed in Whangaparoa. Auckland Transport will have insights on how this works by March 2018.

Rosebank Road traffic – post Waterview

Next up were concerns about the apparent increase in traffic going to the Airport using Rosebank Rd to get into Waterview southern tunnel.

The RBA was also interested in what was known by Auckland Transport about the traffic flow across the day. The RBA also noted that traffic volumes were linked to the schools in the area.

A particular concern of the RBA was that heavy vehicles were struggling at times to get out into the Rosebank road corridor across traffic. The RBA representatives asked if there was there an opportunity to utilise smaller ride on roundabouts at side street intersections as a way for heavy traffic to get into the traffic flow.

The RBA was also interested in ways to give priority to freight rather than smaller private vehicles.

The representatives from Auckland Transport said that wider monitoring was occurring for traffic flows in and out of the Rosebank Peninsula. Auckland Transport is looking at traffic flow impacts not only at Patiki Rd, but also at the main Rosebank Road roundabout.

Investigations were underway concerning the roundabout. While there are constraints (especially with the width of the road), Auckland Transport is looking at how to support a more free flowing southern turn through remarking and reshaping within current lane corridors going through the roundabout.

Work on the Rosebank Road roundabout is planned by Auckland Transport and likely to occur in the short term, with the aim for works to be undertaken in the 2018/19 work programme.

With regard to issues about access from side streets, while more roundabouts was not a preferred option for these intersections, Auckland Transport was nonetheless looking at the performance of the main Rosebank arterial corridor.

On the issue of prioritising freight, Auckland Transport noted that while no engineering solutions were in the pipeline, perhaps there was an opportunity to educate private car drivers regularly using the route by way of ‘educational signage’ on Rosebank Road.

Follow up

While RBA Chair Bernie McCrea and CEO Mike Gibson were pleased with the meeting and the actions that came from it, they also insisted that there be a follow-up meeting early in 2018 to look at progressing the transport options and reviewing further information.